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It had always been Donald Rockcastle’s dream to start his own floral business. The Cornell horticulture major and his wife, Eleanor, began developing their plan soon after graduating college.

In 1951, Donald and his father built the first Rockcastle Florist store at Maiden Lane and Long Pond Road in Greece.

The greenhouses that formed the wholesale side of Rockcastle’s business stood directly behind the retail shop. There, Donald grew mainly seasonal plants such as poinsettias and lilies, which he sold to garden centers and other flower shops. At its peak, Rockcastle Florist boasted 16 greenhouses.

The backyard of Donald and Eleanor’s family home on Long Pond Road connected to the back portion of the greenhouses. As such, the Rockcastle children grew up literally surrounded by their parents’ business.

Keith Rockcastle notes that he and his five older brothers and sisters became actively involved in the family venture at a young age.

An aerial shot from the late 1960s or early 1970s shows the original Rockcastle store and greenhouses.(Photo: Provided by Rockcastle Florist)

“It wasn’t like we were able to just play with kids in the neighborhood,” he recalled. “We had to do things around the business and work in the greenhouses.”

Keith had no interest in the floral trade and went on to study engineering, but his brother Steven began working for Rockcastle in the 1970s. By this time, Donald and Eleanor had divorced and bifurcated the business into a wholesale growing operation and a retail outlet.

Steven joined his dad in the greenhouses, and Eleanor moved the Rockcastle shop to English Road and Long Pond Road.

The wholesale operation later closed, but the flower shop continued under Eleanor’s direction. She would remain the sole family member involved with the store until Keith Rockcastle and his wife, Wendy, joined in the 1990s.

The couple had been living in Philadelphia, but decided to return to their hometown in 1992 to start a family. Wendy began working with Eleanor at the shop and readily recognized how floral design would allow her to develop her long-held artistic ambitions.

When Wendy became pregnant a year later, Keith joined the business.

Keith and Steven Rockcastle were among the florists who decorated the White House for the 1995 holiday season.(Photo: Provided by Rockcastle Florist)

The pair formally took over the reins in 1995. That same year, Keith and his brother Steven were invited to join a team of decorators to deck the White House for the holiday season.

Holidays — namely Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day — continue to be the busiest times of the year for the Greece store, while the Canandaigua location, which opened in 1979, experiences spikes during the wedding season.

Rockcastle Florist also does steady online business and was one of the first local floral shops to have a website. The site’s first order hailed from Australia.

Despite its global reach, Rockcastle Florist, which has been headquartered at 870 Long Pond Road since 2003, remains firmly rooted in the local Greece community.

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In November 1995, brothers Steven and Keith Rockcastle work on a standing spray of flowers at Rockcastle Florist in Greece. The men were preparing to leave for the White House to help decorate it for the holidays.(Photo: Staff file photo 1995)

“The one thing that my mom always instilled in us,” Keith said, “was to always give back to your community.”

The Rockcastles have been actively involved with the Chamber of Commerce and the Greece Rotary and have assisted in numerous fundraisers for local schools and charities.

“We believe that you should give back to the area where your business is,” Keith said, “and hopefully everything will flourish from there on.”

Morry is a Rochester-area freelance writer.

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